What's Odin?

Can somebody please explain to me (in simple terms) what Odin is, and how I use it for the Captivate? I have a vague idea, but I'm not quite clear on a few things, and don't know where to get it, and how to use it.

If I understand correctly, it flashes my phone to factory fresh using ROMs. If I'm right, then I can use it to restore my phone(ATT apps and all) if I need to send it in for repair at AT&T. Am I right?

In short:
Start Odin (download from above)
Put your phone in USB debugging mode
Reboot into download mode with the SDK ("adb reboot download")
You should see the yellow triangle and "Do not Turn Off Target!" on your phone
Odin should see the phone now
Click start
Wait patiently and Do Not Panic

But how do I restore the system to how I got it from AT&T? I assume that not having the bloatware on my phone when I turn it in is a bit of a goveaway that I rooted o something. As much as I hate them, is there a way I can put the AT& Apps back?

If you follow the link to XDA it's explained step by step. To answer your question your essentially flashing a new ROM to your phone. It's not restored from your phone. Imaging formating you're drive and using restore disks to reload your PC. Same basic principle.

Also note, THAT is not odin, it simply uses odin to do the flashing. Odin is a flash program that is used to flash all kinds of ROM's. The one linked above was packed specifically to return your phone to stock.

Can you tell me why XDA has 3 link? what's the different between them and which one shuld I used?

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I think I covered this for someone else, but those are just different ways to pack up an app. One is a .ZIP, one is a .RAR (another archive format like a zip) and the last is a .EXE, self-extracting archive.

The end result is the same, you get Odin with an embedded stock firmware with a size of about 260MB.

You can also download just Odin (it's about 400K) which can load an external ROM file. The "bundle" is a get-back-stock-with-one click solution.

odin does not backup your apps. you will want to root your phone, download tibu to backup, and then you can use odin to restore to whatever firmware you want. finalyl you would reroot and download tibu and restore all of your apps from the backup folder.

I tried this but could not get anything to actually install. I just get a text reader pop up with a jumbled mess. I am not very savy which is why I am in this position, deleted gtalk now basically cant use market. Need to find a way to reinstall gtalk please help

I tried this but could not get anything to actually install. I just get a text reader pop up with a jumbled mess. I am not very savy which is why I am in this position, deleted gtalk now basically cant use market. Need to find a way to reinstall gtalk please help

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Howdy!

If you want to get your phone back to its OOTB configuration, follow this post from above:

In short:
Start Odin (download from above)
Put your phone in USB debugging mode
Reboot into download mode with the SDK ("adb reboot download")
You should see the yellow triangle and "Do not Turn Off Target!" on your phone
Odin should see the phone now
Click start
Wait patiently and Do Not Panic

Click to expand...

Assuming you just want to reinstall GTalk, you'd have to determine if it's just a single APK file (or if there are support files) and you'd need to sideload it (either via root or the sideloader wonder machine app).

Since you're also having some odd market issue, I'd be very inclined to say get back to a fresh start using Odin. Anything you do from here forward if your phone is slightly goofed up could just cause way more issues moving forward.

8. While holding the Volume up/down buttons plug in the USB cable on your phone
8a. This will turn your phone on and put the phone into download mode and install the drivers.

9. Once the drivers are installed and Odin3 see's the phone (it will say something like com 3 connected), press start
9a. If after 2-3 minutes Odin3 does not see your phone, pull the battery out, put it back in and while holding the Volume up/down buttons plug in the USB cable on your phone

so i am currently in the process of restoring my captivate. I got to the part where the triangle comes up and it says Do not turn off Target!!! And in Odin3Exicution i hit the start. It just says <OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0/ failed 0).

Nothing else has happened in odin and the screen is still the triangle on my captivate. Should something be happening?

It all has to be done in the right order.
1. Put your phone in download mode
2. Launch Odin
3. Connect your phone to your pc with the usb cable
4. Notice the space in the odin window that lit up? That means your connected.
5. Click Start.

Heimdall does the same stuff ODIN does, but it's open-source and also a much safer tool. Another plus is one of the main Captivate developers is working on a way to make flashing a new ROM be completely one-click.

8. While holding the Volume up/down buttons plug in the USB cable on your phone
8a. This will turn your phone on and put the phone into download mode and install the drivers.

9. Once the drivers are installed and Odin3 see's the phone (it will say something like com 3 connected), press start
9a. If after 2-3 minutes Odin3 does not see your phone, pull the battery out, put it back in and while holding the Volume up/down buttons plug in the USB cable on your phone

You will now back back to a fresh new phone.

Click to expand...

I was in the other thread trying to figure this out, you should totally add your steps to the OP there. I was holding the volume up/down and powering on instead of holding the volume up/down and connecting usb to power on. Maybe I'm just being dense but I totally didn't catch that part until I saw this post.
anyway, you rock! Thanks!

Hi guys. I had lot problem after I install and firmware on my Samsung i9000. So I used Odin3 and now my phone don't have a logo "AT&T appear in loop =( I don't know what to do because when I use the combo keys, nothing happens... Result I can't use my phone... I need help. Thank you.